Preliminary cutting and drilling studies using new generation lasers. Revision 1

摘要

High power and radiance dye lasers developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory show promise for material processing tasks. Evaluation using welding heat flow models suggests significant increases in precision and speed are expected. We developed tooling and instrumentation to diagnose important parameters including spot geometry and optical train quality. We started processing studies to determine the viability of these lasers for cutting and drilling. We used titanium and stainless steel alloys for testing due to the availability of comparable parametric studies in the technical literature. Results show that cuts and holes with extremely fine features can be made with dye lasers. The high radiance beam produces low distortion and small heat-affected zone. We have accomplished very high aspects ratios and micron scale kerfs and holes. Through continued system improvement and process optimization, we believe that submicron levels will be realized.